Author's Note: I don't know what really goes into a hockey practice or hockey at all so if I mess something up or leave something out then forgive me. This chapter hints towards pill usage.

Chapter 7 - Round One

Adam went through his classes the rest of the day in silence. He wasn't sure about what to do. The Ducks weren't on his side. He couldn't possibly go to Tiny because of her teammates.

Adam felt really alone the rest of the school day. He sat next to at least one of the Ducks in all of his classes. Adam was overwhelmed by the whole situation.

After school Adam had to take more hell from Coach Orion and the varsity coach not to mention what the Ducks especially the Bash Brothers were going to dish out to him at the practice. He just hoped that the older kids could leave him alone for once since all the hockey players were together for these practices because no one was on a team quite yet.

They did blue line to blue line sprints, which felt like forever. After that they worked on shots with an open net then shots with Julie then shots with Goldberg and the other goalies. The players were getting whipped into shape fast.

After practice he was just lying there in the dorms doing nothing really. All he had right now was hockey. Fulton had started getting help from Julie instead of Adam. Today Adam had realized why.

He sat there feeling so alone. There have been only three other times that Adam has felt this bad in his life.

The first time was when he was young. District lines made him have to switch hockey teams in the middle of the season. He switched from the Hawks to the Ducks. He had always made fun of the Ducks and they didn't have any problems giving it right back as soon as they had the chance.

The second time was after the Ducks and him had gotten over their differences, for the most part, and was at the Junior Goodwill Games. Adam had severely sprained his wrist. He had to let the wrist heal or else it would just sprain again. Adam hid the injury for as long as he could though. His coach, Coach Bombay, had finally realized what was the matter with Adam after awhile. With the sling on his arm and a piece of wood to warm Adam felt completely useless and devoted the healing time to feeling sorry for himself.

The third time was just last year when Coach Orion got the idea in his head to put Adam on Varsity. The Ducks saw him as a traitor and hated him. Varsity saw him as a baby and hated him. Adam wasn't too happy about the whole situation either.

Adam felt the walls closing in. He thought about handling his feelings the way he had done in the past.

Adam got to his dorm room about ten minutes after Guy. Adam sat on his bed to work on his homework quietly. Guy put his books in his schoolbag. Guy left the dorm room leaving Adam at one of the lowest points in his life alone.

Adam quickly finished all of his homework. He remembered how little he was able to concentrate when he was getting over his earlier problems. Adam was younger, but he knew that the outcome would end up being the same.

After he finished his homework Adam put his books in his bag. Adam took out his wallet where he was standing and checked to see how much money was in there. He needed more and went to his hiding spot to get it. Adam opened his closet. He bent down to where the shoebox with his dress shoes was and picked the box up. Adam took out the shoes and set them on the floor. In the bottom of the shoebox was a twenty-dollar bill, which he picked up. Then there was a twenty in his left shoe and a fifty in his right.

Adam was pleased that he had this much extra money on hand for emergencies. Tonight was when he would use a lot of it.

Adam left his dorm room after shutting off the light and locking the door. He walked hurriedly out of the dorms and off the Eden Hall campus.

He walked down the road a good five blocks or so. There was a mall where most of the Eden Hall students shopped. Adam went straight to the mall's General Nutrition Center to buy some things that he needed.

The GNC workers couldn't help but notice the amount of teenagers that shopped at that store. The teens bought everything from over the counter painkillers to vitamins to herbal remedies. Some of them didn't even want to consider some of the risk factors of the products that they were buying as long as the product was doing what it promised to do.

Adam walked in the store and went straight to what he was going to buy. He had been thinking about doing this since that day at lunch.

Adam picked up what he needed and went to the checkout to pay for the items.

The cashier looked at him and said, "How old are you?"

"What's it to you? Ring this stuff up, now."

The cashier sighed and started ringing up what Adam was buying almost reluctantly. He said, "Kid, use this stuff the way it says on the bottle. I don't want to see someone like you get hurt."

Adam looked pissed off. He angrily grabbed the bag while putting the change back into his pocket.

Before Adam left he said, "If you knew someone like me you would want them to take the whole damn bottle. I'm not that retarded. I know what the hell I'm doing not like that it's any of your nosey ass business."

He left the store. The cashier had stopped worrying about kids buying their limit on painkillers by now. The cashier had heard worse in his time and life went on for him. Adam wasn't finished for the night though. He headed back towards Eden Hall, but on the way he made a few stops.

Adam had gone to a Walgreen's and bought the exact same amount of pills that he had at GNC. Then he had gone to some Mom and Pop place that must have been there forever and bought some more there. A block away from Eden Hall he stopped at some other place like that and did business there too.

Adam walked back onto the Eden Hall campus emotionally worked up with around seventy dollars worth of pharmaceutical products in his pockets.

Adam went into his room as quickly and quietly as he had left it earlier. He went straight to the closet where he had gotten the extra money. Adam didn't grab the box with his dress shoes, but he grabbed a different shoebox.

Adam desperately took off the top of the faded red box. He looked closely at the different contents of the box.

There were still two leftover bottles of pills from when he had needed them last year. The box also had some little candles with matches in there. Adam knew that he would need them later. The last thing that was in the box was single edged razorblades.

Adam took out the two leftover bottles and moved them to his nightstand. Then he put all of the new pills in the shoebox. Adam put the lid back on and put the box back in the closet.

Adam went to bed early knowing that after he started using what he had bought that he wouldn't be able to get through a night for awhile.

Adam knew from experience that tomorrow marked round one in the fight between Adam and everything around him.